Page 2 - Fork in the Road .... / May

and Forum piece per issue in addition to the columns can and, in fact, has taken its toll.  In short, producing this journal in its current form has become too much for the Editors.

So having written thousands of words exclusively about abstract art and with hours poured into to editing, formatting and publishing we now find ourselves facing a fork in the road ahead with where to take AbArtOnline. In this we are presented a couple of choices: to develop the journal into a larger publication reaching a wider audience with more writers, a better source of funding and real advertising  - or - to scale it back the whole mess from the huge amount of effort it currently consumes to something more modest.  We have chosen the latter which was not difficult because my Associate Editor and I are artists first and writers and editors second.  For all the truly wonderful experiences we�ve had over the past few years including seeing so much incredible art, meeting some uniquely talented people and the joy that writing itself brings, what is all that to making art?

To begin with, Abstract Art Online is not going away and the core of the site, the twice-monthly reviews and Noteworthy Abstraction feature captured in the New York Views columns will remain as it is.  The column archives will also remain but will be expanded from 5 to 6.  In effect this means that after an initial 2 week run as the feature, a column will be available in its entirety for an additional 12 weeks. We are also considering a new feature: direct, downloadable, text-only versions of reviews that have gone beyond the archive dates. These would take the form of a Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat document (or maybe both).

The Art Links page will also remain and, depending on further activity, the Art Blog will stay. However, we will no longer offer the Artist Profiles, the Forums or the Art Sites pages with the exception of an

Previous Page

occasional special feature for one of the first two categories.  The anticipation is that this new format  will further increase our reach to a wider array of possibilities (galleries & studio visits) and will be more inclusive of the outerboroughs.

The final twist for this sea-change is that I�m planning to occasionally write extensive reviews for other venues. While this might include hardcopy publications, I�m specifically referring to ArtCritical.com which last year published my review of Geoffrey Dorfman�s book on Milton Resnick. My expectation is that I�ll be able to expand my critical writing on abstract art for an online publication with a much wider audience; indeed, ArtCritical.com is the type of publication Abartonline.com should have become had we decided on the expansion option.

One more thing; this site would not have been possible without the help and assistant of individual artists, art dealers and their respective staffs.  To all we offer a sincere thank you for the contributions of content and access.  But we must especially single out the enormous generosity of Philip Pavia and Natalie Edgar for making available to us for reproduction content from various editions of It is magazine. The opportunity to reanimate so many voices from the late 50s and early 60s through the written word has proven to be a tremendous experience for us and for our readers judging by the email we�ve received in response.  So to Philip and Natalie we owe a huge measure of gratitude for making Abstract Art Online a much richer publication for this valuable contribution.

The currently archived Artist Profiles and Forums will remain online until the first New York Views column is published in September. Over the summer we will also be revamping some of the site design with a couple of surprises tossed in. So do come back to see us in the fall  will still be here but in a much better and, we believe, more effective format.

Back to Forum Directory